Lot 23 Details
Graham Coughtry (1931-1999), Canadian
RECLINING NO. 2, 1959
oil and Lucite 44 on canvas
signed lower right; signed, dated "March, 1959," and titled verso
48.25 x 54 in — 122.6 x 137.2 cm
Estimate $8,000-$12,000
Additional Images
Provenance:
Isaacs Gallery, Toronto, ON
Robert Simpson Company, Montreal, QC as part of the Vincent Price Collection
Private Collection, Montreal, QC
Exhibited:
The Elsie Perrin Williams Memorial Art Museum, London, ON.
Note:
Newly graduated from the Ontario College of Art and with a T. Eaton travel scholarship in hand, Graham Coughtry travelled to Europe in 1954 and 1955. It was in France where he studied the work of Post-Impressionist artist Pierre Bonnard, and was deeply influenced by the interplay of colour and light. Soon after returning to Canada, Coughtry had his first exhibition at Hart House, University of Toronto, with art school classmate Michael Snow.
Reclining No. 2, 1959, was painted one month after the closing of Graham Coughtry’s second solo exhibition at the Greenwich Gallery in Toronto which featured the related work, Reclining. Part of the original group of artists to be represented by Avrom Isaacs, Coughtry, along with Michael Snow, encouraged Isaacs to open the Greenwich Gallery (later the Isaacs Gallery). Coughtry quickly caught the eye of critics and collectors, including Joseph H. Hirshhorn, who purchased five paintings from this solo exhibition. Interest in his work exploded - by 1960, Coughtry was one of a cohort of young, talented artists selected to represent Canada at the 1959 Bienal de São Paulo in Brazil and the 1960 Venice Biennale, and his work had entered numerous public collections such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, National Gallery of Canada, and the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Art critic Robert Fulford described Coughtry’s early work as “sensuous, thickly painted studies of interior spaces" and "glowing semi-abstract paintings that showed one or two figures floating, unmoored, in space."[1] Reclining No. 2 radiates from its fiery red centre with interspersed patches of purple, blue and yellow on a pink and orange ground. If a figure is there, it is imperceivable. Coughtry's main interest here is the vibrancy and fusion of colour through his brushstrokes.
[1] Robert Fulford, "Painter staked out the cutting edge with abstract work," The Globe and Mail, 16 Jan 1999, C15.
CONDITION DETAILS
Good overall condition.
Mild craquelure throughout. Float mounted.